Louw fifth in Pan Pacs final

Gideon Louw performed the best of the handful of South African sprinters in action when fifth in the men’s 50m freestyle final at the 2010 Pan Pacific Championships in Irvine, California.

Louw was the only one of the South African quartet, who had earlier teamed up for bronze in the 4x100m freestyle relay, to advance to the final of the lottery that is the 50m sprint.

Lyndon Ferns and Graeme Moore had qualified for the ‘B’ final from their morning’s efforts, while Roland Schoeman’s up-and-down form continued when he only managed a disappointing 22.74 for 23rd overall in qualifying.

Louw’s starts in both the morning’s prelims and the evening’s finals were not as sharp as he would have liked, and it left him having to play catch-up the moment he hit the water. However, his 22.14having to play catch-up the moment he hit the water. However, his 22.14 effort from the morning ÔÇô fourth overall behind Brazilian favourite Cesar Cielo ÔÇô was followed by a 22.08 in the final, which was won by Adrian Nathan of the USA in 21.55, ahead of Cielo (21.57).

Moore ended up winning the battle of the South Africans in the ‘B’ final with sixth place in 22.56 ÔÇô identical to his qualifying time ÔÇô with Ferns in eighth on 22.82.

Rousseau missed out on an evening swim by one spot after the morning’s prelims with a 2:03.98 timing, while Versfeld suffered the same fate (17th), after a below-par 2:18.44 effort. Randall’s effort was more promising, narrowly failing to break eight minutes with a 8:01.91 earning him 10th in the 800m.

The Pan Pacs is a championship widely considered to be the third toughest behind the Olympics and the World Championships, mainly as it involves the two traditional strongest nations in the pool, the United States and Australia.